UK government loses torture appeal

Euronews

Secret information relating to the alleged torture of British resident Binyam Mohamed by CIA agents can be published according to London’s Court of Appeal.

The UK government had been trying to prevent its disclosure claiming that methods used during interviews with the former Guantanamo Bay inmate related to US owned intelligence and releasing it would damage future relations of confidentiality.

Lawyer Mark Stephens explained:
“The seven paragraphs which were essential to the ruling of the court described in very broad terms the nature of the torture techniques which were used against Binyam Mohammed and they were everything from sleep deprivation through to mock killings.”

The government has appeared determined to view the ruling in a positive light.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said:

“The important thing about today’s case and today’s judgement is that it upholds the fundamental principle on which we found our intelligence relationship with the United States which keeps us all safe. It’s that one country’s intelligence cannot be published by another country.”

Binyam Mohamed was eventually released from Guantanamo without charge. The British court ruled that methods used in his interrogation related to potentially criminal ill-treatment rather than critical matters of national security and therefore could be published.